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T H E STAT E O F H U N G E R I N M I N N E S OTA

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Our workE N S U R I N G F O O D S E C U R I T Y

F O R A L L M I N N E S OTA N S

Hunger Solutions Minnesota works to

end hunger by advancing fair nutrition

policy and guiding grassroots advocacy

on behalf of hungry Minnesotans and

the diverse groups that serve them. We

connect Minnesota’s food shelves and

hunger-relief organizations with the

necessary funding, technical assistance

and logistical support to reach thousands

of Minnesota individuals, families and

children in need. Our work is made

possible through the generous support

of donors across the country; each

sharing our commitment to ensuring

no Minnesotan will struggle with food

insecurity alone.

How it all worksSMALL ORGANIZATION, BIG IMPACT

MN FOOD HELPLINE

HUNGER SOLUTIONS

VOICE OF HUNGER

FOOD SHELVES

FOOD BANKS

HUNGRY MINNESOTANS

FOOD DONATIONSPOLICY

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Minnesota familiesstill strugglingNo one could have known that the need for hunger relief

services would still be growing in 2014. Unfortunately, our work

is needed now more than ever. According to a recent report,

Minnesota’s real household median income is down 9.5% over

the last ten years (Winkler, 2014). The downward slide results in

1 in 4 Minnesotans working in low-wage jobs.

Minnesotans are also facing high food prices at the grocery

store. Lower-income households have less flexibility in how they

spend their money because of rising costs of fixed expenses

such as rent, utilities, health care and car insurance.

Hunger Solutions

continues to develop

new initiatives

to reach hungry

Minnesotans. We

strive to improve our

services and expand

our advocacy to keep

adequate, healthy

food on the tables of

our hungry friends and

neighbors.

One in five families with children in Minnesota faces hunger

or food insecurity. This means that children do not always eat

three square meals a day and sometimes skip meals. Much of

this happens on the weekends and during summer vacation

when there is no access to free or reduced school meals.

During summer vacation, about 36,000 Minnesotan children per

week eat lunch via the federally funded Summer Food Service

Program. That represents only 15% of eligible children — leaving

an estimated 250,000 kids at risk of missing lunch.

• Our Minnesota Food HelpLine aids parents in finding

food for their children in their neighborhood and enroll in

supplemental food programs like WIC, SNAP, school lunch

programs and more.

• Each summer, we make special grants to food shelves so

they may stock up on extra food for those times when

parents really need the extra assistance.

• We advocate at the State Capitol and in

Washington DC to make sure that children have

access to the food assistance they need. This

year we made sure that no Minnesota child

would go hungry and feel stigmatized at

school if their parents could not afford

to pay for their lunches.

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HSM makes an impact on child hunger

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The Minnesota Food HelpLine assists low-income Minnesotans

to get the food that they need. Since launching the HelpLine in

2009, it has helped more than 30,000 people get assistance.

CHANGE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

30,000 Minnesota adults without dependents recently became

ineligible for SNAP benefits. They have fallen into a gap because

of their extended unemployment. Many of these are veterans.

A new study has found that vets who served in the Afghanistan

and Iraq wars are nearly twice as likely as other Americans to

struggle to get enough food. The study from the University

of Minnesota School of Public Health found 27% of young

veterans from those wars do not have consistent access to food

(Widome, Jensen, Bangerter & Fu, 2014).

BY THE NUMBERS

• Total number of calls in 2013: 5,900 (8,686 household

members), 50% of those calls were from senior citizens.

“I lost my job a few years ago when the economy tanked. I needed to get food on the table, so I called the HelpLine and they were so helpful. It really made my day — and I hadn't had a good day in a long time.”

— Phil

Hunger help on call

1.888.711.1151 | www.MNFoodHelpLine.org over the phone language interpreters available

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SNAP RxHunger Solutions Minnesota is collaborating with the AARP

Foundation, the University of Minnesota School

of Public Health and the Minneapolis Health

Department on a new program: SNAP

Rx. SNAP Rx is designed to connect

healthcare providers statewide

with existing resources that

address food insecurity,

particularly in Minnesota’s

senior population. Our

initial research found a

major barrier to addressing

hunger at the clinic was the

lack of resources for providers.

We also developed an easy referral system for providers who

have identified food insecurity in patients. Patients will be written

a "prescription" to call the Minnesota Food Helpline, a toll-free

resource where they can be screened for SNAP eligibility and are

connected with other programs in their community. Programs

such as nutrition education, food shelves, farmers markets that

accept SNAP, and discount grocery programs.

“Hunger has many serious health consequences, including diabetes, depression and hypertension. These challenges are some of the most formidable public health issues facing the United States today, particularly among older people. The SNAP Rx program helps doctors connect older patients to the nutritious food they need to stay healthy, happy and independent.”

— Jay Haapala, Community Outreach Director AARP MN

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Food assistance by the truckloadMany of us remember the free blocks of cheese when the USDA

truck rolled into town back in the 1980s. Today, the Emergency

Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) means much more. Through

the TEFAP commodity food program, Hunger Solutions

Minnesota distributes more than 12 million pounds of high-

quality proteins, fruits and vegetables to Minnesota food banks.

Families visiting food shelves have access to a greater selection

of nutritious food.

TEFAP is the backbone of the emergency food system because

the products include items not often donated to food shelves.

Some goods are too costly to purchase at retail value, so their

availability through TEFAP allows food shelves to obtain higher-

quality foods at little or no cost.

DELICIOUS VARIETY

TEFAP provided 69 different products to food shelves in 2013.

PRODUCT VALUE

Potatoes $419,036.16

Chicken $ 674,500.00

Canned Fruit $ 682,246.80

Whole Turkeys $ 299,300.40

Orange Juice $ 234,360.95

Blueberries $ 198,396.00

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2000 – 2013 FOOD SHELF VISITS

Visits to Minnesota food shelves well over 3 million mark.

Another record year for food shelvesVisitors to food shelves report having to choose between paying

for food and paying for utilities. This means that people in those

households simlply did not get enough to eat -- they had to

cut the size of their meals, skip meals, or even go whole days

without food at some point during the year.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Every day in Minnesota, food shelves serve 3,500 children.

• Food shelf usage in the nine-county metro reached a record

1.7 million visits in 2013. This is nearly a 50% increase from pre-

recession numbers. Almost half of these visits are made by

children and seniors.

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Meeting hungry Minnesotans where they liveThere is a service gap for food-insecure Minnesotans that have

mobility challenges. We have begun to build capacity within

the emergency food system by solidifying the newly formed

mobile food shelf network. Last year the mobile food providers

distributed 833,832 pounds of food to 42,166 individuals. Our

goal is to expand that number by 25% in the next year.

“Mobile food distribution is a critical component in assuring access to food support for food insecure families by addressing mobility and transportation barriers.”

— Lisa Horn, The Open Door

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Our advocates in the Voice of Hunger Network celebrated

policy wins that fight hunger and poverty.

We successfully advocated at the Minnesota Legislature for a

variety of policies designed to put more food on the plates of

hungry Minnesotans:

• Minnesota schools are now directed and funded to expand

free school lunch. This would cover the 61,000 children whose

families fall into the gap between full price and free.

• Schools now are instructed to serve Universal Free Breakfast

for all students in Kindergarten. Schools are prohibited from

the stigmatizing use of hand stamps and stickers on children

if parents have unpaid lunch bills at school.

ON THE HORIZON

Do you support farmer's markets and food access for low

income Minnesotans? We do too! We encourage you to support

our Healthy Eating, Here at Home initiative. This program would

provide a modest match to SNAP use at farmer’s markets.

This legislation will increase SNAP enrollees’ access to fresh,

local, and healthy foods by expanding their buying power at

farmer’s markets. Incentives will increase SNAP use and allow

low-income Minnesotans to buy even more fresh, healthy foods

while shopping from local growers at the market.

Advocating for fair food policy

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H U N G E R S O L U T I O N S M I N N E S O TAWinning Minnesota’s Food Fight

www.HungerSolutions.org | 651.486.9860

Learn. Advocate. Donate.

We’re ranked as the most efficient civic nonprofit

by Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.